I need help I know nothing

[HELP290]

My brother has been thinking of getting a graphics card. AMD's RX graphics cards have a game deal going on. My brother has a dell inspiron 3670. Do you guys know if any of the XT graphic cards are compatible with my brothers pc. If I have stated anything wrong please tell me. Also will these cards run Half Life Alyx?

Sorry I am not experienced when it comes to computers. All I have done is replace a fan and add ram to my laptop. Thank you

[Jurrunio]

Most likely not. At least it has a usable PCIe slot (since it could come with a GT1030 card) but I doubt it has PCIe 6pin needed to power at least the RX 5500XT. You have to check that.

 

Half Life Alyx should be playable with an RX 5500XT but it may need minimum graphics settings, the game is not out yet so there's no testing data available.

 

[Tristerin]

Type This PC into the search bar, then right click the icon that comes up and select Properties - what kind of hardware are you rocking?  Can take a screenshot if you then search for Snipping Tool in the search bar and taking a screenshot and showing us. 

 

What size tower, there are a couple variants of this tower (mid, mini etc)

[16bit]

6 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

Most likely not. At least it has a usable PCIe slot (since it could come with a GT1030 card) but I doubt it has PCIe 6pin needed to power at least the RX 5500XT. You have to check that.

 

Half Life Alyx should be playable with an RX 5500XT but it may need minimum graphics settings, the game is not out yet so there's no testing data available.

 

Maybe an external power supply to feed the v-card? It's kinda crazy but It'd be interesting

[HELP290]

31 minutes ago, Tristerin said:

Type This PC into the search bar, then right click the icon that comes up and select Properties - what kind of hardware are you rocking?  Can take a screenshot if you then search for Snipping Tool in the search bar and taking a screenshot and showing us. 

 

What size tower, there are a couple variants of this tower (mid, mini etc)

I hope I have done it right. Here you go

Edited February 5, 2020 by HELP290
Someone said I should delete the image

[Tristerin]

4 minutes ago, HELP290 said:

I hope I have done it right. Here you go

-snip-

Actually go ahead and delete not sure if that product ID matters, I got the info I needed (CPU and RAM)

[Tristerin]

Open the side panel on the computer, and take a picture of the inside so we can see what kind of case/space you have avail

 

Its an i5 8400 with 12gb of 2666mhz ram.  From Dell site it appears to be a mid atx case.  We need to figure out what power supply is inside if you can take a pic of the unit once side panel is off clear enough to see the specs of the PSU, then an overall shot of inside the case so we can tell you how to get measurements if it looks tight

[HELP290]

31 minutes ago, Tristerin said:

Open the side panel on the computer, and take a picture of the inside so we can see what kind of case/space you have avail

 

Its an i5 8400 with 12gb of 2666mhz ram.  From Dell site it appears to be a mid atx case.  We need to figure out what power supply is inside if you can take a pic of the unit once side panel is off clear enough to see the specs of the PSU, then an overall shot of inside the case so we can tell you how to get measurements if it looks tight

[HELP290]

[HELP290]

I hope this helps

[Tristerin]

Good ol' proprietary shenanigans!  So that PSU is not an ATX PSU and its rated at 290w - without spending a ton of time, its not going to be a great PSU to keep in the unit should you put a GPU in that requires power draw.  But that likely isn't going to play VR really well (I believe Alyce is VR only?).  So a slot powered card would be the only recommendation I could make without replacing the PSU (which will take some adapters and rewiring to do).

 

I think the best slot powered card you have as an option is the GTX 1650.  Im not sure that's a VR capable card, as its 50% slower than my Fury's which I would call barely capable VR cards.

 

From what I can tell that PSU is 4 pin CPU 8 pin mobo proprietary PSU for that board or similar, as ATX standard is 24pin for the board 4+ pins for CPU (basically)

 

I have actually built a custom gaming rig for fun out of similar (custom loop, GPU, ATX PSU conversion) in a proprietary mess of a computer, Ill put a picture below

 

To get an ATX PSU to power a GPU effectively you have two options:

 

Research an adapter that works a 24pin ATX PSU down to the connectors used on your specific mobo - this is the one I used (I believe) for my conversion:

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/for-HP-Elite-8100-8300-8200-800GI-E-PSU-ATX-24-Pin-to-6-Pin-Power-Adapter/133261304022?_trkparms=aid%3D555018%26algo%3DPL.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20131003132420%26meid%3D85c6eb9905aa41b8a291f8bdc2233db6%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D12%26mehot%3Dco%26sd%3D324038467889%26itm%3D133261304022%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D2047675&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851

 

Then you can get a standard ATX PSU that has PCIe power so that you can put an appropriate PSU for gaming in the rig.  I.E. a Corsair CX550 or so.  

 

Now, I must state - the adapter swap I did to my for fun rig, blew the PSU in 6 or so months.  So not sure if it was the fact I used an old PSU from the parts pile or the adapter caused it to blow.  I semi blame the adapter as it was a previous Tier A PSU.

 

OR the other jank way

 

Buy another PSU and run it from a wall socket and route the PCIe power to the GPU inside the case through PCIe slots on the case or leave the side panel open.  The second PSU will power the GPU while the one that came with this rig will continue to do its normal thing.

 

In the end, this is a proprietary case, Motherboard layout, PSU so the ability to DIY is limited to how much you are willing to do to this rig to get it to work.  

 

Since I talked about it, heres what mine ended up looking like when I was done with it (circled in red up top is the 24 pin connection adapter to my board that was 6 pin + 8 pin I believe (don't have time to get it out and take it apart and look):

 

EDIT - I need to also say, I had to rewire that adapter after researching my boards pinout, and my PSU pinout, so it did NOT work out of the box either for my situation and required more DIY than just a plug and play solution